Visitors to Mountain View Cemetery, located west of Fraser St between 31st Ave and 43rd Ave in Vancouver, can find some 329 Commonwealth war graves of those who served in WW1, a Cross of Sacrifice, and a spectacular view of the Coast Mountains north of Vancouver. The Jones 45 section of the cemetery has the largest concentration of WW1 war graves.Continue reading →

The Japanese Canadian War Memorial stands in a quiet grove in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, “in lasting memory of the 190* who answered the call of duty for Canada and to the 54 who laid down their lives in defence of freedom in the Great War.” Visit in the spring, if you can, when the surrounding cherry trees are in bloom.Continue reading →

The Canadian Memorial United Church and Centre for Peace, at the corner of W 15th Ave and Burrard St in Vancouver, was built as a memorial to Canadians who fought and died in WW1 … and as a ministry for peace and an end to war. This is the second post about the memorial elements in the church, looking this week at the narthex windows.Continue reading →

All Canada window “in honour of all men and women of Canada who rendered service in the World War”

Replica Books of Remembrance from Peace Tower, flanked by Michael and Gabriel, the angels of justice and peace.

Organ donated in memory of US citizens who served with CEF and were killed in WW1

At the corner of W 15th Ave and Burrard St stands the Canadian Memorial Church and Centre for Peace, built as a memorial to Canadians who fought and died in WW1 … and as a ministry for peace and an end to war.

The Gothic revival church features several memorial elements, historical events and Christian symbolism:Continue reading →

Built in 1927-29 on the NW corner of W Georgia and Hornby Streets, the Georgia Medical-Dental Building was the first art deco skyscraper built in Vancouver. Amongst the rich ornamentation on the outside of the building were three 11-foot-high terracotta statues of WW1 nursing sisters, gracing the three visible corners from the 10th floor. Architects McCarter and Nairne had served in WW1. McCarter had been wounded and credited the nurses with saving his life. The sculptures, designed by Joseph Francis Watson, were a way to honour them.Continue reading →

Two friezes by British Columbia sculptor Beatrice Lennie flank the main entrance of the former Shaughnessy Military Hospital, at 4500 Oak Street in Vancouver.

The carved stone panels are about five by eight feet. The left panel shows a nurse helping an injured soldier, with the crest of the Canadian Medical Corps at the bottom. The right panel shows a doctor holding a wounded soldier, over the Latin phrase “on sibi sed omnibus” – not for oneself but for all. The upper corner ornamentation, sunbeams and clouds suit the streamlined art moderne style of the 1940s building. Lennie signed each panel on the bottom right corner.Continue reading →

Many communities, be they municipalities, clubs, professions or companies, saw fit to commemorate members of the community who served or died in WW1. The Canadian Pacific Railway was one such company. The Angel of Victory by Montreal sculptor Coeur de Lion MacCarthy commemorates 1,115 CPR employees killed during the war. Three castings of the bronze statue were dedicated from 1921 to 1923, at the CPR stations in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal. The angel lifts the soldier to heaven at the moment of his death.

A sentimental image, but what is its merit as public art? In a 27 July 1963 column in the Ottawa Citizen, Carl Weiselberger denounced it:

It is that monument showing the limp body of a dead soldier complete with puttees, hobnailed boots, lifted by an angel (or is it victory?) – a kind of Canadian Valkyrie, carrying a Canadian soldier into a kind of Canadian Valhalla. It’s the worst kind of candy art applied to a great human drama, a desecration of art and taste to such a degree that a super-sensitive passenger might flee from the station to take the nearest bus …

Robert Shipley, in his 1987 book To Mark Our Place: A History of Canadian War Memorials, argues on the other hand that “the primary function of memorials is the visible expression of grief at the loss of fallen soldiers.” (p 111) The artist or craftsperson “has to work from a given repertoire of forms that will inspire within the viewers the emotional intent of the memorial.” (p 109)

The Vancouver statue has seen better days. The angel’s wreath is broken. A protective patina thought to be dirt was removed with wire brushes in the 1960s. An attempt to remove a graffiti peace sign on the plaque left its evidence behind. Moved from a more prominent location on Water Street, it is now blocked in part by a bar patio. (A follower of this blog who once was in the military notes that the soldiers would likely appreciate being in the pub!)

WW1 memorials pop out when I least expect them. This plaque is in the grand entrance hall of the Terminal City Club in Vancouver. The TCC is a private business club in Vancouver, founded in 1892. Its name denotes Vancouver as the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. When the TCC moved to a new complex on Hastings Street in the 1990s, they incorporated some architectural features of the old building: pillars, doorways, chandeliers, a stained glass dome. This plaque came along, too.

A bit about the named members, as best as I can tell from the attestation papers at Library and Canada Archives and death records in the Canadian Virtual War Memorial. (Don’t expect any women members from the war years … women guests couldn’t even dine at the TCC until the 1920s.)

George Pigrum Bowie, architect, born 1881, killed at Ypres, July 7, 1915

D. N. Moore (no record … may have served in armed forces of another country)

The Vancouver cenotaph is in Victory Square, a small park at the corner of West Hastings and Cambie Streets. The cenotaph was unveiled in 1924. The obelisk is triangular to fit the shape of the park.

A Vancouver Historical Society plaque in the park describes how the space has changed over the years. In 1918, returning soldiers used the site to reconstruct front-line trenches to raise money for widows and dependents. In 1935, unemployed workers gathered for demonstrations. Early in this century, the surrounding park was relandscaped. Shades on the new light standards in the park are soldier helmets.